There are many paths up the mountain, but the view is the same, but first you have to climb a freaking mountain, so get climbing.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Kata is the shape of the weapon

We build our weapon through the kata. The weapon of the human body. The kata is the shape of the weapon, the practice of kata is the forging of that weapon. The number of positions that a body can make is almost unimaginable. To hunt through all of them to find the most effective movements and patterns for self defense would be time consuming and cumbersome. The kata gives us a platform to work from.

A person builds it and shapes it until it is as hard as steel and supple as silk. This is only the first step. The building of a weapon is not the application of that weapon. Once it's built it needs to be used, stressed, and abused to find the limits of its function. Only then can it truly be understood.